Latest articles from Islamic Finance

Hussain Al Qemzi, CEO of Noor Bank, discusses the long-term prospects for the Islamic banking sector, describing the valuable role it can play in promoting greater cross-border co-operation and operational harmonisation.

The past year has seen a number of firsts in the Islamic finance industry, including the first sovereign sukuk from the West. This represents a huge step forward for an industry previously considered niche. Islamic players now must consolidate on these gains by broadening their product offerings, expanding their customer bases and targeting new levels of interoperability with global markets.

Though the recent story of Islamic finance is largely a successful one, the sector's relative lack of maturity means that some shortfalls do exist. One of these – the supply-demand mismatch regarding small and medium-sized enterprises – has left a potentially lucrative hole to fill.

The increasingly international outlook of the Islamic finance market place is providing new growth opportunities for Islamic banks and, according to Standard Chartered Saadiq, Malaysia's chief executive, Wasim Akhtar Saifi, is also offering much-needed solutions to the industry's longer term liquidity management problems.

Islamic finance asset management is booming globally, with countries in south-east Asia and the Gulf spearheading growth, thanks in part to improved investor confidence, regulations and infrastructure.

Morocco is on the cusp of a legislative breakthrough that will pave the way for a fully fledged Islamic finance system in the country. But with a history of failed Islamic banking experiments, on top of the usual problems associated with establishing a new market in a country, Morocco's Islamic banking sector is unlikely to take an instant hold.

With the UK, Luxembourg, Hong Kong and South Africa all preparing to issue, the popularity of sukuk is going global. And though each is likely to be limited in size, they will bring with them greater international awareness of sharia-compliant financing options.

Observers are already predicting that 2014 will be a record-breaking year for sukuk issuance. While the majority of deals are currently coming out of Malaysia, CIMB Islamic's CEO believes that developments in the pipeline will see the asset class grow its international presence.